I too was concerned for Maggie and grateful she woke up in time. Let's all be careful....

I am glad to find that, with our gas wall-mounted heater (in the same location as the one that burned most of our addition down 10 yeasr ago), set on high-- but only when we are at home and awake and downstairs nearby-- the attic bedroom overhead heats up quickly even on the coldest and windiest days, and even after a really cold night (around zero), up to about 60 degrees. Then the oil-filled rad up there kicks in for a quick warmup to barefoot temps. We had really wondered if we could keep a guest up there warm, economically.... thru the winter. I've spot-checked it enough to be confident that we can.

We use that room right now for our money-management meetings, where we are putting more of Larry Burkett's Biblically-based tools and strategies to work, together. (We meet up there about twice a month, which gives me a good opportunity to putter away also on anything up there that needs attention.) We keep the upper door open (gated) to let the heat up and a mouser uses it for egress to keep it vermin-policed.

The money-mgmt stuff all lives in a small portable file box, in case I need it or anywhere else. All this took several months to make happen, but it's settling into a nice routine now... and I SO appreciate the job Adrian did to carpet the stairs on the way up there!

A nice Xmas outcome was that next year's 2011 gifts have all been bought when we could afford it this year, and 2010 expenses tracked to budget for 2012. This gives us a realistic dollar amount to keep with next year; our giving has increased (in numbers of recipients and in tithing). As we continue to track other expenses for 2011, we should be in a good position to make some bigger $$$ decisions in 2012.

~Susan